1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and related print control program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for enabling an information processing apparatus to generate print data with print settings changeable on a page-by-page basis, and relates to its processing method and related print control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a printing system can include a host computer and a printer. A printer driver installed in the host computer can convert output information, if generated by application software, into print data and can transmit the print data to a printer. In such a printing system, the printer driver can display a dialog to enable a user to set a paper size, a paper type, and other print information, before the application software outputs drawing data. Print settings by the printer driver can be performed in units of print job. Thus, common print settings are applied to the entire print object for each job.
Of various entries for the print settings, a user can select a borderless printing according to which a print object image is fully printed on a recording paper without any margin. For example, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-26148, when borderless printing is selected, the printer driver can slightly enlarge a print object image to have an enlarged size extending out of a recording paper. A printer can receive enlarged print data and output a borderless print image.
However, according to the borderless printing of the above conventional technique, a part of ink will be discharged outside the edges of the paper sheet. To recover the ink discharged outside of the paper edges, a printer can be equipped with an ink absorbing member in a platen region. In other words, a printer can employ a structure capable of preventing the platen from being contaminated by the discharged ink.
In general, when a pigment ink is printed on a paper, its permeability is poor. When a pigment ink adheres on an ink absorbing member, a relatively large amount of pigment will remain on the surface of the ink absorbing member. The pigment remaining on the surface of the ink absorbing member not only contaminates a printing paper but also may cause a malfunction of a printer in conveyance of the paper.
Meanwhile, there is a method applicable to a printer that uses pigment ink and performs borderless printing. The method includes forming a black color by combining CMY color inks (i.e., dye inks) without using pigment black ink.
A number of recent printers have an automatic two-sided printing function, according to which print object images can be automatically printed on both front and reverse faces of a paper. On the other hand, according to a conventional two-sided printing, a manual work by a user is required to reverse a paper after the printing of the front face is finished. Otherwise, the printing of a reverse face cannot be started. The automatic two-sided printing can eliminate the manual work by a user.
When the automatic two-sided printing is performed for a particular type of paper, it is often preferable to differentiate the print settings for each of the front and reverse faces. For example, when the automatic two-sided printing is performed for a postcard, a text printing using a black color is applied to the front face (i.e., an address face). In this case, pigment black ink is preferably used to form high quality black letters which cause less bleeding of ink.
On the other hand, color inks are preferably used for the printing of the reverse face (i.e., a communication face) so as to form a higher quality image. Furthermore, borderless printing is preferably applied to the reverse face (i.e., communication face) when a reverse face image includes photographs and illustrations.
According to the WINDOWS (registered trademark and product name), i.e., an operating system (OS) provided by Microsoft Corporation, print settings of a printer driver (referred to as DEVMODE) can be changed on the page-by-page basis. Therefore, the output size by application software is adjustable by changing print settings of borderless printing on the page-by-page basis. The print data having a desired layout can be generated.
For example, when an automatic two-sided printing is applied to a postcard, monochrome printing using pigment black ink can be applied to an address face with an output paper size “postcard” (i.e., at a magnification 100%). Meanwhile, borderless color printing can be applied to a communication face with an output paper size “postcard.”
However, according to the Mac OS X (product name), i.e., the operating system (OS) provided by Apple Computer Inc., enlargement/reduction processing is performed by a rendering section of the OS and, according to the spec of the OS, changing an enlargement/reduction rate on the page-by-page basis cannot be allowed. Thus, a common enlargement/reduction rate is applied to the entire print object.
As a result, the following problem will arise when a borderless printing is applied to the reverse face (i.e., communication face). For example, if the drawing data of application software are enlarged to have a size equivalent to 105% of a recording paper, not only the reverse face data (i.e., communication face data) but also the front face data (i.e., address face data) are similarly enlarged to have a 105% size and the borderless printing is applied to the front face. In this case, as described previously, using pigment black ink for the borderless printing is not preferable. In other words, it is difficult to print high quality letters which causes less bleeding of ink on the front face (i.e., address face).
Therefore, even if a printer has an automatic two-sided printing function, a user independently performs the printing of front face (i.e., address face) and the printing of reverse face (i.e., communication face). Not only the operation is time-consuming and troublesome for a user, but also the user cannot make full use of the automatic two-sided printing function of the printer.
Furthermore, even in a printer using only dye inks, if a printer driver operates under the control of the OS that allows a rendering section of the OS to change an enlargement/reduction rate only in units of print job, the borderless full-page printing will be equally applied to both a communication face and an address face. In other words, as previously described, the enlargement/reduction rate cannot be changed for each of the front and reverse faces.
Hence, in the borderless printing, a printer driver receives the data larger than an actual printing paper size, including enlarged print data for an address face. For example, a zip code must be written in a predetermined frame pattern on a postcard. However, if the borderless printing is applied to a postcard, the printing of a zip code may deviate from the designated position, with excessively large figures printed on the postcard.